Fish stockings

[sandef]

big reddies the trout have been yearlings

[cobby]

That's cos the reddies eat them. Not to mention the stress to a small fish that comes from dumping them in a different type of water.

Someone posted some research here a while back showing that only a few percent of the fish stocked make it. It sounds bad but that's the reality of fish reproduction, they pump out millions of eggs and most get eaten by something long before they reach adulthood.

This. They stock so many numbers purely for the fact most either just die or they end up eaten. Even yearlings. You'd be looking at less than 30% survival rate beyond a week for most stockings

[Truedogz]

I can't comment specifically on what the VFA does but having worked at hatcheries producing fish for stocking I can provide an insight into how the numbers are estimated. For the smaller fingerlings/fry (native fish) they are counted into the delivery tanks with scoops, like those used to drain pasta in your kitchen. At some point in the process several scoops worth of fish are actually counted and from this the average number per scoop calculated. Multiplying this by the total number of scoops provides an estimate of the total number.

For larger fish they can be counted with a photo-electric counter. They are poured down a tube and as each one breaks a light beam they are counted.

As to survival rates there are many variables. With native fish fry some of the work I have seen has produced returns to anglers estimated at 10 - 25 %, but as I said it can vary a lot depending on the species, water, size of the fingerlings and the particular year. In Qld when we stocked silver perch in impoundments that were an inch long there was very little return but two inch fish significantly improved the results.

I have been involved in surveying large farm dams stocked with native fish. In one case a dam that had been stocked with 200 golden perch was netted five years later and the owner had kept a diary of what they had caught. We accounted for 90 fish, the best about 19 pounds!

As to predation by redfin this was identified as a significant problem in the 1960s. I can recall there was a lake that was stocked with trout and for the next few days fisheries staff caught redfin and opened them up. Many of the trout were in the redfin. This drove the shift from stocking fry in lakes to stocking yearlings.

I cannot understand why we release stocked fish into redfin infested waters in daylight. They are known to be inactive at night so that is the time they should be stocked. We did this stocking some impoundments in Queensland with bass that had a lot of predators with excellent results.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

[4liters]

I cannot understand why we release stocked fish into redfin infested waters in daylight. They are known to be inactive at night so that is the time they should be stocked. We did this stocking some impoundments in Queensland with bass that had a lot of predators with excellent results.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

Probably not as good for the photo op at night

[TheNix]

Have a friend how is a absolute crack trout fisherman collects his own mudeyes and scrubbies has been fishing the Upper Coliban about 6 times this season only caught 3 trout despite 35.000 being stocked has never caught a rainbow the only thing in large numbers has been carp .He also has fished Eppalock no natives or trout only carp Eppalock has been stocked with 20,000 trout and 150,000 yellow belly .9 of us fished Upper Coliban on the 30/06/19 with only 1 trout in poor condition The return to anglers seems poor for the numbers of fish stocked

I fished the Upper Coliban a couple of weeks after the rainbow's were released and I got four the first day and another two a week later (all safety returned to the water), but I've not seen any since. The fish were throwing themselves on the hook over the first month or so and I bet a large number were taken by fishermen despite being undersized. When you add to that the poor way a lot of fishermen removed hooks and return the fish to the water the mortality rate of the fish must be enormous. Then add the predation from other fish, the pelicans and that bloody big eagle that I've seen flying around, it is not surprising that the returns seem poor.

[smile0784]

Because Donald Trump said so on Twitter

And that's believable lol

[smile0784]

I think he's it comes down the the professionalism of the fisheries offers and what they write in there report

[Tim399]

Where is Bugatti’s picture of a fish wearing stockings?

[gregmaka]

I knew of a person that was always tipped off by a guy that worked for fisheries a week before,the fish were released, So ever since i heard fisheries were going to stock a lake before school holidays, i knew these low life people were going to fish the lake out. Fisheries need to release the bigger fish on the day school holidays start. Sorry i had to say that it's been on my mind for years.